The two companies are expected to submit a joint application to Arun next month, which would see Lidl take up half the sprawling site, and the builders merchant rehoused in new, purpose-built facilities.

Lidl's announcement has come as something of a surprise in the town, although the Travis Perkins land has long been seen as a ripe for major redevelopment and three years ago was included in the Littlehampton Vision as an "opportunity site", possibly for a supermarket and housing.

As the land is in the flood-risk area and close to the River Arun, housing was becoming an increasingly unlikely option, but the Lidl/Travis Perkins proposals will still need to have robust flood defence measures.

Lidl is holding an open day at the United Church, High Street, Littlehampton on Monday May 19, 2008), from 10.30am-4.30pm, when more information about the company and the store will be available, along with free food tasting. Invitations have been delivered to 10,000 homes across the town.

Jason Gratton, development executive for Lidl's regional property office, said Littlehampton was one of a number of older Travis Perkins sites where joint schemes were being drawn up, enabling the builders merchant to generate money to invest in the future of its branches.

"Littlehampton was one of the locations raised with us. We already have a strong presence on the south coast, with stores at Worthing, Bognor and Chichester, and there is obviously a qualitative gap for a discounted foodstore at Littlehampton.

"We identified Littlehampton as having a very strong position, with the density of population. We note that there is a lot of deprivation in River ward, where the store will be based, and independent retail analysts have recognised that discount stores such as Lidl can offer shoppers up to 30 per cent lower bills for their shopping."

Jobs could grow with turnover

Mr Gratton said Lidl would be bringing wider consumer choice and competition to Littlehampton. The neighbourhood food store would have just under 14,000 sq ft of sales area and would sell around 1,200 product lines, with the emphasis being on lower prices rather than wide choices of products — for example, only one brand of baked beans.

He claimed Lidl had shrugged off its cheap, no-frills tag and was now being increasingly recognised for the quality of its food.

Most of the 40 initial jobs would be part-time, but Mr Gratton said Lidl paid competitive wages for the industry and was not a minimum-wage employee.

Depending on turnover, he hoped that, within a couple of years, substantially more jobs could be created at the store.

Feedback from Monday's open day will be used to tailor the kind of store provided for Littlehampton, he added.

Arun business development manager Miriam Nicholls said: "We are always delighted when any business wants to come into Littlehampton, from an economic development point of view, and invest in the town.

"It's great for Littlehampton and for the whole area, and we hope it will pull more people into the town from outside, too. As a council, we would be very interested to know what people think of Lidl coming into Littlehampton."
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